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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23571946">The Waning Star</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyraina_de_Bergerac/pseuds/Cyraina_de_Bergerac'>Cyraina_de_Bergerac</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Shattered Glass</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abuse, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Explanations for the unexplained changes between the mirror and the standard universes, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Physical Abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 20:34:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,896</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23571946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cyraina_de_Bergerac/pseuds/Cyraina_de_Bergerac</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>There were many challenges that Megatron anticipated from being the newest professor of mathematics at Iacon University. What he hadn't prepared for was the brillant, stubborn, sharp-tongued seeker that became the first warframe to attend. Especially after circumstances cause Starscream to come under his care. Can Megatron help Starscream to trust him after he's been betrayed before?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Megatron &amp; Soundwave (Transformers), Megatron &amp; Starscream (Transformers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Why do you make this so difficult, Star? I’m only making sure the academy has no cause to kick you out. I’m looking out for your best interests here.”<br/>
“My best interests?!” Starscream screeched within the confines of their cramped, two bedroom apartment’s living room, his large wings shooting straight up. “Skyfire, they’re my Trine, my brothers by spark, if not by heritage. It's in my best interests to not lose them through inactivity. I haven’t seen them since coming to Iacon.” The white and red Seeker sat back onto the dingy, blue, narrow chair with a groan, his wings dropping down over the armrests. The evening sunlight filtering through the large window overlooking Iacon’s glittering, golden cityscape washed over him. “I understand that the workload and other obligations and opportunities make it so I can’t visit Vos during the holidays. I could understand waiting till I settled in until inviting up. That concern is irrelevant now. They deserve a chance to at least visit!”<br/>
“Star, Star, Star.” Skyfire sighed and leaned over the smaller Cybertronian, gripping Star’s shoulder with his smooth, white servo. “It’s hard enough for the both of us here being flight frames, this being grounders’ home turf and all. It doesn’t help that you’re the first Seeker, if not warframe, to attend the Iacon Science Academy. You must be careful, though. One wrong twitch and you’re out of here without any of your masters completed or certification to undergo deep space exploration. Having other Seekers come out here will definitely cause twitching.”<br/>
“And the afts can’t handle the fact that I know other Seekers?!” Starscream pushed the Shuttle forward and stood up. “I’ve been holding my glossa when anyone makes remarks about the ‘flightiness of Seekers’ or other such things that are truly wrong. I’ve been putting up with you being my quote/unquote minder to make the administration happy. I’ve gone more than three months without going ‘trigger-happy’ or getting into brawls. Heck, I’ve been skirting ground sickness because of the flight restrictions you suggested. The academy can handle my trinemates for a few solar-cycles and they’re stupid if they---.” Starscream hissed as Skyfire’s servo crumpled his sensitive wing, painful daggers shooting through his frame.<br/>
The Shuttle tutted. “Is pain really the only thing you warframes understand?” His grip tightened, causing Starscream to gasp. Skyfire leaned down and grabbed his fellow student’s chin to lock optics. “Anything you do that threatens your place here also threatens mine. I haven’t withstood years of scorn and disbelief that a Shuttle has the processor storage space to get into university only to have an upstart warframe like you ruin my chances. Your trinemates are not to come here or otherwise distract you from your research and classwork. You may be remarkably bright for a Seeker, but that doesn’t negate the work you’ll need to do to keep up. If your trine ever comes within this vicinity, I’ll make sure they never make that mistake again.”<br/>
“You touch my Trine and you’re dead!” Starscream unsheathed his claws and made as if to swipe. Skyfire let go of Star’s chin, deftly caught the deadly servo, then sighed.<br/>
“You really want to do this Star? Who would the academy most likely believe if you were accused of unprovoked vicious assault with intention to maim or kill?<br/>
Star’s ruby optics narrowed into a glare, but he held still. The Shuttle was right, regrettably. Starscream ex-vented for some micro-klicks, cooling his fury, before resheathing his claws and casting his eyes downwards. Skyfire had the power here, for the moment.<br/>
The Shuttle smiled. “I’m glad we have an understanding.” He let go of the Seeker’s wing and headed towards the kitchen. “I’ll grab the first aid kit. Wouldn’t be good to show up in class tomorrow with a wing like that.”<br/>
Starscream slumped back into the chair and glared at the retreating figure. Skyfire had won for now, but this wasn’t over yet. Starscream could survive this, bide his time under Skyfire’s rule. He’d be rid of him and any other “minders” once he’d graduated. He’d show them then. In the meantime, he’d just have to wait. No chance of outside help for this. He was on his own.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The young Professor of Mathematics groaned. Why did Soundwave have to play his music at this unprimely joor? The sun wasn’t even out yet. Yet the thin beige walls were not muffling the upbeat noises of one of his roommate's morning workout soundtracks. Nor his overly cheery exclamations. No chance of going back to stasis mode now . Grumbling, Megatron crawled out of his berth and lumbered over to the living room-kitchen space. <br/>	 “Is that old Mega’, finally up and at ’em?” Soundwave smirked behind his face mask and visor, barely glancing over his shoulder as he finished his kickboxing. “Snazzy. I thought for sure me and the cassettes would have to use the old airhorn routine again  .” <br/>	Megatron glared as he made his way to the off-white styrofoam couch. “You better not do that again. That sound was ringing in my audials for hours afterwards.” He grimaced and looked around. “Where are your little terrors anyway?”<br/>“Still in recharge.” The Carrier finished his exercises and he turned towards his friend, his green headband fluttering its trails behind him. “They insisted on helping me grade homework  , saying it ‘wasn’t fair to the students who wrote the compositions for me to keep slacking off on giving them feedback.’” Soundwave made a harrumphing sound. “I was going to get ‘round to it, but they forced the issue last night. Anyway, I hadn’t realized how behind I was. The six of them ended up grading till they dropped, at which point I put them to berth. The grades all got done, though.”<br/>Megatron snorted. “How we ever managed to convince them to hire you as a music professor, I still wonder.” <br/>“You and I and the cassettes were a package deal and I manage to seem more ‘normal’ whenever one of them is watching.” Soundwave grinned. “Add to that how short-staffed the music department is and how much they wanted the most brilliant math Ph.D. in their employ, and it ceases to be too out there that it happened.” <br/>“Could you stop trying to inflate my ego? It's too early in the morning to deal with this.” Megatron rubbed his helm.<br/>“Too early!?” Soundwave said in mock horror. “Oh, poor emberling. To be up two hours before your eight o’chronometer class. Such a tragedy.”<br/>Megatron facepalmed. “Soundwave, please. Not this early.”<br/>Soundwave chuckled. “Righty-o then, Fearless Leader. Let me whip up some energon while we mentally prepare for another day of long hours and tired, overly-stressed students.” The Carrier shuddered as he started up the frying pan. Then he drew the mid-grade energon rods out of the dispenser. “Is this really the best teaching system? Seems slagged up to drain the energy and enthusiasm out of learning. Just doesn’t seem good for the mojo.”<br/>“True.” Megatron heard the sizzle of energon hitting the frying pan. “Yet there are some Cybertronians that not only survive in this sort of environment, but thrive and exceed all expectations. Take Starscream, for instance. He’s surpassing all his peers, keeping at the top of his classes while taking on multiple post-graduate Ph.D.’s at once, all while dealing with the anti-warframe and anti-flightframe prejudice rampant around here.” The math professor sighed. “At least, he was.”<br/>Soundwave paused as he reached for the flipper. “Still worried about him?”<br/>Megatron grimaced. “Worried and not exactly sure why—or what I can do.” He rose and headed towards the stove. “He’s still ahead of his classes, yet he’s slowing down. He’s become more... defensive. Unusually so. He never lets his guard down at all now. He’s stopped snarking, seems on edge, like an explosion waiting to happen. Maybe over a year at Iacon is getting to him, or maybe it’s the addition of summer classes, but he used to let off steam with snark, flight time, satisfying his curiosity, and the occasional revenge prank.” Megatron paused, scanning through his memories. “I haven’t seen or heard of him doing any of those things in the last three months. He doesn’t talk with me after classes anymore or come to my office for additional lessons. Every time I try to reach out, his ‘minder’ is always there, saying Starscream can’t be late for his next class or lab time.” Megatron growled. “Minder. What possessed the board to thrust that piece of humiliation upon Starscream? He’s his own mech. He obviously is capable enough not to require an emberling sitter.”<br/>“They think it's a good first warning countermeasure, in case his warframe coding makes him goes berserk and start randomly offlining other mechas.” Soundwave snorted without humor. “They don’t realize that those codes only go online in certain circumstances of danger as determined by the mecha themselves and that not every warframe can go berserk.” The Carrier sagged. “Could we have helped ease some of that for him? If we had been honest about at least our heritage, if not our origins? If people could know why you can’t transform into a vehicular mode?”<br/>Megatron placed his servo gently on Soundwave's shoulder. “Soundwave, we’ve been through this and both of us agreed we had no other option. Revealing that we were warframes would have given them a chance to determine where we were suppose to be, increasing the chances of us being taken back to the Kaon Pits and forced back into the gladiator ring. Polyhex had the means and population mixture to make us seem enough like civilianframes to pass muster so that we wouldn’t be as easily tracked if they noticed our escape. That concern has lessened, but is never completely gone. Besides, the fallback would be tremendous if we revealed ourselves now. None of that would have helped Starscream or could help him. The best we can do is support him as much as we can now and allow him to pave the way for future generations after him. Prove that the Functionalists aren’t right when they say that ‘function follows form’ and our place in society is determined completely by our frames and initial coding.” Softly smiling, Megatron grabbed the flipper from Soundwave. “Now go wake up your little hellions. I can finish up preparing breakfast.”<br/>Soundwave smiled back. “You got it Boss-bot.” As he left the room, Megatron chuckled. No matter the hardships they faced or the fact that Soundwave had managed to acquire that Polyhexian accent, he could never regret deciding to leave those Pits behind that still caused bad memory fluxes or deciding to take the younger Soundwave with him as well as the then three, soon to be five cassettes. It was all worth it to see their smiles or hear their laughter, free of worries about whether they would have to kill or be killed tomorrow, for Soundwave to no longer hide behind that drone impersonation he had originally used. Things were better for their little group now and he wanted things to remain that way.   Still, he was not going to turn a blind eye to others that could use his help, particularly fellow warframes. If Starscream kept showing signs of distress, he would get to the bottom of it and damn the consequences .</p>
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